Five on Friday: First Birthday Celebrations And Decor

With Caleb’s first birthday, my parents visiting, and another round of illness, it’s been a fun and crazy few weeks.  Here are some pictures and updates from all the festivities!

1) Grandparents In Town

My parents flew out to KC this past weekend for Caleb’s first birthday and it sure was fun to have them in town! We spent lots of time playing on the floor with Caleb, reading him books, and just basking in his silliness with occasional breaks while he napped.  We also had some yummy barbecue at a local place called Q39 and an amazing brunch at Gram and Dun, a restaurant in the plaza (although I had a super-rich burnt-end mac and cheese which maybe doesn’t qualify as brunch…).

First taste of KC BBQ at Q39!

And of course all our pics from brunch have Caleb nomming on a cracker and a photobombing waitress…

I hate that we live so far from my parents and we soak in every minute we get to see them.  We are so blessed to live close to Jordan’s family in KC but I wish we could magically bring California right next door too.  I guess we’ll just have to fly out to Orange County every chance we get! 🙂

2) A Woodland Critters Birthday Party

I’m not much a of a party planner and honestly get a little anxiety with trying to plan cute decorations and food.  I love decorating our house and I love cooking for people but squeezing it all into one event makes my perfectionist self go into meltdown mode. Am I the only one?

We decided to keep things small and just had family for a sweet little celebration of Caleb’s first year.  From his rustic nursery with some woodland twists to his many shirts and hoodies with navy and orange colors, we have loved anything with foxes for our little redhead, so something fox/woodland animal themed seemed like the way to go! I picked up a few fun things at Hobby Lobby and the Target dollar section and added a few items I borrowed from Caleb’s nursery to add a little decor to our kitchen/living space.

The only thing I made for this was a little high chair banner using ribbons in some of my favorite colors.  I might share a tutorial soon but it’s honestly so simple that I feel silly writing it out! I just cut lots of ribbons the same length, tied them to a string, then made a little 1 banner following this tutorial for the initials banner I made in Caleb’s room. Voila! High chair banner!

We didn’t go crazy for this party but the small touches we added were just right for us and our introverted little guy.

3) A Mini Cake Smash

My original plan was to make some fox cupcakes following this tutorial I found on Pinterest.  They didn’t turn out horrible, but my perfectionist self struggled when I was reminded that intricate icing creations are NOT my forte.  We ended up making a little mini cake with leftover cupcake batter for Caleb, spreading some bright orange icing all over it, and then letting Caleb go to town!

He was pretty hesitant at first but eventually jumped in to play with the cake when he saw his cousins eating their cupcakes.  I don’t think he had more than a bite or two but he definitely loved smashing it with his hands!

Feeding grandma!

4) Stomach Bug Round 3

On a not so fun note, Caleb spent the 36 hours after his party throwing up everything he ate.  He’d been weird with food the whole day leading up to the party, so I don’t think it was just that first bite or two of sugar.  We had our well-check with the pediatrician the next day and she said it’s likely his little immune system has just gotten hit pretty hard with these stomach bugs and his gut might be struggling to heal and catch back up.  We’re starting him on some probiotics this week and hoping that we’ve seen the last of the stomach bug for a while.  But for now, little man is doing lots of sleeping, fussing, and snuggling while he heals.  Life as a baby is rough, you know?

5) An Interesting New Book

After seeing a friend recommend the book How Not To Die by Michael Greger, I checked it out from the library.  It is fascinating! The first half of the book talks about how the American diet high in meat, dairy, and processed foods contributes to so many illnesses prevalent in our country, and the second half dives into the science of how a plant-based diet can help our bodies to be stronger and healthier now and in the future.  The ideas here really have us thinking about what it would look like to reduce how much meat and dairy we consume and I’ve had fun doing research on new vegetarian recipes. Any vegetarians/vegans out there have any favorite recipes/food blogs I should check out?

Whew! Lots of updates since it’s been a few weeks since I posted.  Thanks to all you sweet readers who have wished Caleb happy birthday and encouraged us in the midst of all the sickness.  We are so grateful for you! Have a great weekend!